Of Ladders and Lies

No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. (John 3:13)

I see an allusion to the issue of belief which is the main theme of this passage.

Belief involves testimony by a witness who has seen something first hand and relates it to others.

A witness testifies about what they themselves have seen.

A witness, to be credible, must have first-hand knowledge of what they are testifying about.

The real problem occurs when those who are making decisions based on the testimony of witnesses become so skeptical that they refuse to believe what a true witness is claiming to be true. There is where justice begins to break down, for if people refuse to acknowledge and embrace truth from an authentic witness then that person themselves becomes the obstacle for the spread of truth.

We often focus our attention on the validity of witnesses or the integrity of judges from a legal perspective and that is all very important, especially in relation to salvation. But often we overlook the role of those to whom the testimony is being directed, which in our system we would perceive as the jury. If, as members of the jury involving God's trial, we refuse to accept as valid the testimony of those who have first-hand knowledge of the truth about God, then we may find ourselves to be the focal point of an investigation to determine our own integrity. For in the long run, from heaven's perspective everyone involved in this trial must be cross-examined and must be accountable to the principles of integrity and truth.

God is not measuring us by how we relate to things we are unaware of or do not understand about truth. But we are very responsible for the choices we make when we do perceive truth, especially the real truth about God's character and the way He feels and relates to us. This is the core issue of our accountability before God and all the universe. The way that we choose to respond to the testimonies of those who have encountered God and particularly the testimony of Jesus who is the very revelation of the real truth about God, our choices in this regard determine our eternal destiny.

This is the aspect of the great trial going on where we find ourselves in a sort of mini-trial. Most Christians have mistakenly assumed that we are the main focus of the great trial taking place in the judgment, that we are the primary ones on trial before God. But a proper understanding of Scripture reveals that the real issue at stake is the reputation of God Himself and that He has chosen to allow all of us to form our opinions about what He is really like based on the evidence provided to us. In a very real way we are all selected to be part of the jury in the trial in which God is the defendant. And the most important part of that evidence is the testimony of Jesus about who God really is.

What we chose to do with His testimony then determines what direction our own role in this great trial will take. Those who accept the true testimony of Jesus and allow Him to cleanse and expunge all of the lies about Him that fill our heart and minds will become filled with His Spirit, with His perspective of life and will be transformed into His image. They will then in turn become witnesses themselves bearing truthful, first-hand testimonies about their own encounters with this God who claims to be good, gracious, merciful, kind, forgiving, loving and full of abundant life.

Those who cling to their own opinions about what God is like based on their perceptions of Him filtered through their own painful experiences in life and tainted by the lies of Satan embedded in their hearts, these will bear false witness against God in the things they say about Him and the way they live based on what they believe about Him deep in their hearts. They will resist all the claims that don't seem to confirm their preconceived ideas about God and will insist that God has a dark side that will lash out at times in anger, that God will resort to force to get His way when He gets cornered, that God will run out of patience with sinners and will use threats and torture to accomplish His goals whenever necessary.

Jesus' discussion with Nicodemus quickly moves to revolving around this core issue of belief in a testimony. Nicodemus is confronted with the need to challenge his own assumptions about God, to have his own unbelief exposed and to decide what to do with a true, straight testimony about God's love coming directly from the Son of God Himself.

The text quoted at the beginning of this post seems rather strange and vague until one begins to examine its connections in other places in the Bible. Then it begins to become evident that it is speaking directly to this issue of our own belief, our choices of how we are going to handle encounters with testimonies of truth about God. This text is a direct reference to Deuteronomy 30:11,12 and also an allusion to Jacob's dream of a ladder spanning the distance between heaven and earth. (Gen. 28:12)

For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it. See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity. (Deuteronomy 30:11-15)

This passage comes on the heels of a long list of blessings and curses that God laid out so that people could see the benefits and dangers inherent as a result of how they would choose to relate to Him, their source of life. When properly understood and perceived, these blessings and curses will be seen as the natural consequences of whether we choose to believe and embrace the life-giving offers of God to bless and transform us into His image again or whether we will cling to the lies about Him that are so familiar to us.

Unfortunately, religion cannot be depended on to relay to us the real truth about God as it claims to do. Religion has become one of the dominant sources of misconceptions about God in this world, that perpetuates the lies of Satan charging God with attributes that actually describe Satan's character in instead of the truth about God. Satan has ever sought to distort our opinions and feelings about God's opinions and feelings about us in order to keep us from trusting Him fully and being reunited with His heart of infinite love for us.

Satan hates love and particularly hates the Son of God. It was the Son of God that Satan wanted to displace when he was Lucifer in heaven and the thwarting of his plans to take over the government of heaven only intensified his bitterness and animosity toward Jesus. When Jesus came to earth to more fully reveal the truth about God to humans Satan did everything possible to bring Him pain, suffering and discouragement. He was determined to keep the truth about God hidden from the hearts of fallen humans and he was enraged that Jesus was spoiling the fruit of thousands of years of his deceptions and traditions that darkened the picture of God in our hearts.

Since Jesus returned to heaven Satan has worked even more diligently to distort Jesus' testimony about God and to cause us to prefer unbelief and doubt about Him over acceptance of Jesus' straight testimonies about His Father. He hijacked the church that Jesus set up on this earth and filled it with millions of lies about God illustrated through horrendous acts of brutality. It painted a picture of a God who is mean, vengeful, arbitrary and selfish. This became the norm for religion and its dark influence is still permeating every denomination that claims to have left its domain. The lies about God that fill religion are still in our minds, still infect many of our teachings and subtly influence our opinions and doctrines without our realizing it.

The real issue today just as it was in Jesus' day is still the core issue of belief or unbelief. It is not enough for God to reveal in various ways the real truth about how He feels about us. If we choose to cling to mistaken or distorted ideas about Him we will only take His testimonies and twist them to fit our preconceived opinions instead of allowing the light to expose our own deceptions.

Take a look at Jacob's encounter alluded to in Jesus' words. Jacob was a refugee running in terror that his brother would kill him if he could find him. He was full of shame, guilt, fear and all sorts of emotions that left him feeling abandoned and forsaken by God. He was discouraged and hid in a bunch of rocks to get some sleep while he traveled to his uncle's house for safety.

As he slept in this state of discouragement God gave him a dream of a glorious ladder that reached all the way from earth to heaven. This was meant to present Jacob with the amazing reality of God's desire to keep His covenant with Jacob that had been passed down from his fathers. God came to assure Jacob that He was going to care for him, protect him and bless him. But what was Jacob's response to this announcement?

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father's house in safety, then the LORD will be my God. (Genesis 28:20-21)

Now doesn't that beat all? God just got done assuring Jacob that He was going to take care of him without strings attached and Jacob turns around and sets up conditions for God to meet before Jacob would believe in His promise. He wants God to prove Himself before Jacob is willing to trust Him as his God. Now doesn't that sound an awful lot like unbelief?

This ladder in Jacob's dream actually represents Jesus Himself who connects earth with heaven. The angels of God are seen using this connection to communicate avidly between these two places and Jesus refers to this here in this discussion with Nicodemus. But I think that included in this reference was a reminder that we should not follow Jacob's example of unbelief in our response to the connection that Jesus wants to be for us with our Father in heaven. We should not burden our hearts down by setting preconditions for God before we are willing to entrust our lives to Him.

Note that Jacob was confronted to come to a fuller trust of God before he returned all the way to his father's house. I believe that this was necessary because God did not want Jacob to base his faith on the terms Jacob set up but on the covenant promises that God had outlined. When Jacob had his famous wrestling match with God it was really all about wrestling with the lies in his heart about God reflected in this vow that he had made years before.

Evidently Nicodemus was facing a similar challenge. He needed to face his own spirit of unbelief, his own doubts about God that were being stirred up by seeing how Jesus acted and spoke. Jesus was confronting him with crucial truths about reality and about God's attitudes toward us that need to be embraced if any of us are to ever see or enter into the kingdom of heaven.